THE British government has not completely ruled out contact with Sinn Fein in advance of an IRA ceasefire.
A Northern Ireland Office spokesman said yesterday that if there was an unequivocal restoration of the ceasefire "contacts could be very quickly resumed with officials".
He added, however, that a meeting before a ceasefire "could not be totally ruled out but would be related to the situation on the ground which basically would be the security situation". It is understood that there could be no meeting if the current IRA attacks on the RUC and British army in the North continued.
The NIO comments follow a renewed call by the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, for the British Prime Minister, Mr Major, or his officials to meet Sinn Fein before the general election.
Speaking on the first anniversary of the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire, Mr Adams said that a Northern Ireland Office Minister, Mr Malcolm Moss, had met a Sinn Fein councillor in the past few weeks. He said Mr Moss discussed local issues with the West Belfast councillor, Mr Alex Maskey.
The NIO response was that the government's policy had not changed. When Mr Moss met Mr Maskey, the Sinn Fein councillor was part of a delegation where there was a "level playing field" because all sides were united about local issues.
The spokesman said that in the "political" area government policy had not changed. Mr Major had said in November that if there was an unequivocal ceasefire contacts could be resumed. Some people "have not signed up to the Mitchell principles".
Although the NIO stressed that there is no change in policy, mentioning the possibility of contact in advance of a ceasefire is seen by observers as a slight shift in emphasis.
At the weekend Mr Adams said he was prepared to sign up to the Mitchell principles on non violence and to negotiate with the British government about Sinn Fein's entry into the talks process after a new IRA ceasefire.
"If the British government want to negotiate on that then, of course, we want to work out some formula or some very limited time frame which is sensitive to everyone's needs in this situation.
"My view and my position is quite simple - that we should be involved in the talks anyway," he told BBC Northern Ireland. "But in order to deal with the sensitivities of everyone involved, including the unionists, I am prepared in the first instance to sign up to the Mitchell principles. In the second instance I will use the work John Hume and I are doing to try and bring about a peaceful environment in which these talks can take place."
Yesterday he unveiled a plaques to commemorate seven west Belfast taxi drivers killed in the past 25 years.
He called on Mr Major to say now what his ideas were about moving the peace process forward and he questioned his "political will". Mr Major said two weeks ago at a business conference that he had some new ideas about making progress and would bring them forward after the election.
"Why can't he put them forward now?" the Sinn Fein president asked. He added that it was so "absurd" that Mr Major did not do so now, to bridge the gap between the two sides.
Mr Adams also told BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme yesterday that he wished to arrange meetings with members of his party and government officials, to bring fresh impetus to the talks.
Explaining that despite the IRA's insistence last week that a ceasefire before the general election in Britain was "unlikely", Mr Adams said he thought it would be "possible" to arrange talks with the British government "if Mr Major has the political will for us to get together".
It was clear that it was the British government which had the means to "bridge the gap" between itself and Irish republicans. He asked why Mr Major could not authorise "one or two" of his officials to meet "one or two Sinn Fein representatives" to sit down and work out a way of "teasing out some way forward to bridge that gap".
Asked to comment on the prospect of such a meeting with Sinn Fein representatives, British government sources said: "The British government's fundamental position with regard to Sinn Fein remains unchanged. Before Sinn Fein can enter the talks process the IRA must announce an unequivocal ceasefire and they must be shown to have stopped surveillance targeting and punishment beatings and sign up to the Mitchell principles. Confidence building measures must be put in place."
Last night the leader of the SDLP, Mr John Hume, spoke of his fear that in the political vacuum before the British election no decisions on the talks process would be taken and the IRA "will commit a terrible atrocity". If that happened, he said, a breakdown of the loyalist ceasefire would lead to "far worse violence than ever before".